Indicator.



H. 1. MILES.

INDICATOR.

APPLICATION FILED 020.5. ms.

Patented Mar. 18,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- In i'renifoi':

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H. 1. MILES.

INDICATOR. APPLICATION man DEC-5. me.

' 1,297,888. I r Patented Ma1.18,1919.

. 2SHEETS-SHEET2- T i Inventor/- HARVEY JAMES MILES, or BEGKENI-IAM, ENGLAND.

INDICATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Mar, 18, 1919 Application filed December 5, 1916. Serial No. 135,237.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known thatl, HARvcr JA Es MILES, a subject of His Majesty the King of En land, and resident of Beckenham, in the county ofKent, Kingdom of England, have invented certain. new and useful Improvements in Indicators, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in calendars, calendar clocks, and generally in automatic, periodic, and intermittent feeding mechanism for a ribbon or tape of fieXiblee material.

In the improved feeding-mechanism constructed according to the: present invention the ribbon or tape is. allowed by an improved intermediate roller and .escapement mechanism, which is automaticallytr'ipped at required times by uniformly moving clockwork apparatus or. its. equivalent, to periodicallywind onto a. drum which is directly and removably mounted upon. a spring barrel, such winding being caused by the action of. the spring contained within said barrel, and its movementsa'rendered equal. at all theperiodic stages by the; ac tion of the intermediate mechanism. The apparatus may be; designed for use with calendar clocks or calendars; orfor exhibiting and repeating or changing advertisemerits, or church, legal, commercial or other printed, painted-or otherwise formed on a tape or band of any suitable material, and the apparatus is released or actuated by suitable mechanism or gearing 'operatively connected with the mechanism of a clock to advance and change the calendar once .a day. In arrangement. theseparate dates might be inscribed one underneath the other and longitudinally on the tape or band in the following manner, for instance:

Saturday, J anuary 1st. Sunday, January 2nd. Monday, January 3rd.

and soon throughout a complete year.

Thus. the apparatus may be. applied, to an existing clock driven by a spring or weight, by electricity or otherwise in such manner that it is caused to operate by the existing mechanism of the. clock through the intermediation of. a. suitable motion-transmitting mechanism or gearinginterposed between this. case .the apparatus may be mounted in a suitable case and be periodically released by spring or weight driven mechanism similar to that of a clock and adapted to be wound up periodically, or by electrically controlled driving mechanism.

When used with an existing or specially constructed clock or for advertising or like purposes, the band or tape is especially adaptable to be renewed at the end of each year orwhen otherwise desired, according to the purpose for which the apparatus is used.

By the insertion of a specially prepared tape or band at thecommencem'ent of each year the diiiiculties. encountered by reason of their-regular lengths of months, the occurrence of leap years, and the like are avoided; V

'A suitable manner of applying the invention to a clock will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: I

Figure 1 s an elevation of the improved apparatus for carrying and advancing a tape or band bearing the dates to be exhibited;

Fig 2 is a. plan of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is asectional'elevation about th line, 3 -3 of Fig. 2, and I J an elevation, partly in section,

Fig. i is the apparatus applied to a illustrating clock.

The tape or band a, bearing the data to be exhibited, unwinds from a spindle b, fitted with a removable tinge" nut 0, on to a drum (Z directly and rcmovably fitted on a barrel or cylinder 6 which latter is rotated in one direction by an internal spring wound up by a fly nut Reverse rotation of the cylinder and drum (Z is prevented by means of a spring pressed pawl g engaging a ratchetwheel h secured to said cylinder. The periodical movement of the tape or band, owing to the tension of the spring in the cylinder 6, is allowed for by means of an escapement consisting of a spring pressed double pawl 2' engaging a star wheel j secured to an intermediate roller or drum in, said d-rum being provided with teeth Z or other projections for engagement within perforations or formed in the edges of the tape or band. The tape or band passes over one, two or more guide drums a. An arm 0 formed on the double pawl i is adapted to be tripped once in every twenty fourhours by means of any suitable mechanism governed by the clock 29, thus actuating the apparatus, and the data on the tape or band a appears behind a window Q formed in the clock case. By the arrangement of the toothed drum 71: and the escapement devices 2' and j between the fees spindle 5 and the winding up drum (Z the tape or band will always be moved an exact and equal amount at each operation oi? the apparatus, thus avoiding the difiiculty due to the accumula tion of errors of travel which would otherwise occur owing to the variation of circumference of the tape or band on the spindle Z) and drum (Z as the feed takes place from one to the other. The spring in the drum (Z will, always keep the tape or band taut.

Suitable constructions and applications of the invention can be adapted for use at railway stations for advertising the de parture and arrival of trains, in churches and the like to announce the numbers of the hymns, and in theaters, music halls, concert halls, picture palaces and other places of amusement for announcing the names and characters of the players, the names and numbers of the turns, the titles of pictures and so on; for advertising purposes in public places, on board ships, trains and road vehicles, in which latter cases the apparatus can be aranged, for showing a series of advertisements for certain predetermined intervals of time running through a number of the advertisements up to the capacity of the apparatus. A suitable method of efiecting alteration of the indicating apparatus at irregular intervals of time would be to employ one reeaeee or more drums or disks having one or more holes drilled at regular distances on the circumference representing time intervals. For instance, if twenty four disks or drums were employed they could be divided into sixty equal parts representing minutes, and each disk representing one hour. A large disk or drum containing divisions sufficient for the whole day could be employed if desired, the time intervals being arranged according to requirements. Suitable plugs forming cams could then be inserted in the holes according to the time which could be clearly marked on the drum or disk, so that as the disk revolved it would operate in turn levers which would control the mechanism of the apparatus. Thus, if it were desired to operate at 5.50, a plug would be inserted in the disk corresponding to hour number 5 and minute number 50. In the case of hour disks, it would of course be necessary to revolve these by suitable means once every hour; if three hour disks are used, then once every three hours, and so on.

in the case of a large apparatus, the arm 0 may be tripped by mechanism actuated by an electric motor, water-motor, clock-work motor, or other power producer which is in turn controlled by clockwork or other escapement mechanism in the immediate locality or at a distance.

It is obvious that provision can be made for illuminating the exposed part of the announcements either from the inside or the outside of the apparatus, and if desired, suitable arrangements may be made to automatically cut oil the light at definite times, such as when the announcements are changing. More than one apparatus may be actuated from a common power mechanism.

It will be appreciated that the rolls and the tape may be so mounted that each roll rotates on a horizontal, vertical or inclined axis, or the tape travels horizontally, vertically or diagonally, and that the inscriptions on the tape may be arranged in any order thereon, such as longitudinally as above-mentioned, or as shown in Fig. l, or diagonally, laterally or otherwise as desired.

What I claim is i A calendar or calendar clock comprising in combination a casing, clockwork mechanism in said casing, a support secured within the casing, a plurality of spindles each secured by one of its ends of said support, a feed roll rotatably mounted on one of said spindles, a spring actuated barrel mounted on another of the spindles, a drum removably mounted on said spring barrel and rotated by the latter, a rolled strip of material which bears the dates removably located on one of thespindles, guide rollers mounted on certain of the other spindles and over which the strip passes, said strip passing over the feed roll and winding on the drum under the action of the spring barrel, the feed roll having teeth which engage perforations in the strip to prevent slipping of the latter, an escapement wheel rotatable with the feed roll, a spring-pressed pivoted escapenient lever having two lugs which cooperate with the teeth on the escapernent wheel, said escapement lever having an eX- tension adapted to be periodically tripped by the clockwork mechanism, to permit the feed roll, the spring barrel and the drum on the latter tofeed the strip the distance between two teeth on the escapement wheel, a ratchet wheel rotatable with the Copies of this patent may beobtained for spring barrel, a spring-pressed pivoted pawl engaging said ratchet wheel, and a fly nut for turning the spring barrel in one direction on its respective spindle and winding the spring therein, the cooperation of the teeth on the feed roll with the perforations in the strip, and of the escapement lever with the escapement wheel insuring that the strip is moved an exact and equal amount at each operation of the apparatus.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

HARVEY JAMES MILES.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0. 

